The design of the new Ostrava district Žofinka will be proposed by three architectural teams

Ostrava - The shape of the new Ostrava district Žofinka, which a private investor wants to build on the site of the former slag heap of the Žofinská foundry, will be proposed by three architectural teams. The jury selected them based on submissions in the first round of the urban-planning and architectural competition organized by the investor together with the city of Ostrava. Gabriela Šimůnková communicated this on behalf of the competition organizer.

The jury chose the finalists from seven competing teams from the Czech Republic and abroad. The selected finalists will now refine their concepts into more detailed proposals. "Quality architecture is key to the development of Ostrava. In such an important project for the city, the urban-planning and architectural competition is irreplaceable, as it brings many perspectives, variants, and possibilities for how to approach the addressed area and how it can be interpreted. This competition has gathered very inspiring and interesting proposals, some were even very bold,” stated the mayor's deputy and jury member Lucie Baránková Vilamová (ANO).

In the final, the decision will be made between the proposals of the Prague office Pavel Hnilička Architects+Planners, the Czech association Studio Perspektiv with the Slovak Marko & Placemakers, and the Danish studio ADEPT, which is competing with the Czech studio tečka, the landscape studio VEN.KU architekti, and the studio ohboi. The Danish studio ADEPT won last year’s international architectural competition for the design of the Ostrava Towers Complex skyscraper in the city center.

"The selected competition teams now have time to finalize their proposal, which they will submit at the beginning of April. Following this, a third competition workshop will take place, where the jury will select the winning proposal," said Karolína Koupalová from the planning office ONplan, which is organizing the competition. The public may also participate in the competition. Interested parties will have the opportunity to express their opinions on the submitted proposals, which will be exhibited in public spaces this April. The comments will then be forwarded to the competition jury as one of the materials for their decision-making.

The district is set to be created between Nová Karolina and the Lower Vitkovice area. The brownfield Žofinka covers approximately 20 hectares, with about 515,000 square meters intended for development. The company Pod Žofinkou Holding, which is the project's investor, previously stated that the construction of the new district will take two to three decades. In the first phase, about 60,000 square meters could be developed. The first phase is expected to cost around 3.6 to four billion crowns.